Gavekal Capital: The US Mortgage Application Market Finally Wakes Up

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The US Mortgage Application Market Finally Wakes Up

All summer long we talked about how mortgage applications were down and couldn't get off the mat. That looks to finally be changing, at least from a refinancing point of view over the past couple of weeks. In the last two weeks the mortgage application index has increased from the 350 to 413 and has broke out of the range it has been in all year.

It looks as though lower mortgage rates over the past month has finally kickstarted refinancing activity in the housing market. 30-year mortgage rates have fallen by about 25 basis points over the past month.

Unfortunately lower mortgage rates haven't sparked new purchases. The purchase index is still near the lows for the year and actually declined last week.

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